14 DAY TRIAL // God of War: Ascension is a prequel to the main series and the developers at Sony Santa Monica used this to flesh out Kratos and show that he's not just one big angry Spartan.
The main God of War titles that appeared on the PS2 and PS3 delivered a linear plot that culminated with protagonist Kratos exacting his revenge upon the Greek gods.
In God of War: Ascension, however, Sony Santa Monica takes players back to the start of the adventure and offers a prequel to the first game in the series.
This allowed the team, according to Lead Game Designer Mark Simon, to have some more fun with Kratos and show a different side of him.
"At the end of God of War 3 Kratos is completely rage-filled," he told PS blog.
"His sole-focus has been figured out. With Ascension, we can go back to a different time period before he was this character. He has a wider range and you can explain things about him that you didn’t know before. You get to find out what turned him into the guy that he is – what makes him snap, and why is it that breaking a bond with a god like Ares does this."
Even so, the single-player demo that's still available for the PS3 shows Kratos very angry after being imprisoned by the Furies. That isn't the start of the story, however, as Simon emphasized that the game's campaign would be a non-linear one.
"That’s due to the way the story is told," Simon said about the anger. "It’s like Slumdog Millionaire, or something like that. He’s not at the beginning of the story when you start the game. It’s told in a non-linear fashion. It builds up to why he is in the prison – why he was taken there by The Furies."
God of War: Ascension is out today, March 12, in North America and tomorrow, March 13, in Europe, only for the PS3.